


through absence of sleep (wisdom is formed)

by Stargirltakingflight



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, Hardworking Tony, I wrote it as Iron husbands but it could also just be Iron bros, Implied Tony/Rhodey if you want to read it that way, Peter thinks sleepy-Tony is hilarious, Peter-Harley shenanigans, Social Media, Tony needs to rest, Tony’s sleep depreived mind, Twitter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-10
Updated: 2018-10-10
Packaged: 2019-07-29 05:56:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16258061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stargirltakingflight/pseuds/Stargirltakingflight
Summary: Tony doesn’t make sense when he’s sleepy and tired. The world seems to think he does.





	through absence of sleep (wisdom is formed)

**Author's Note:**

> Here I am again, this time with a short funny piece inspired by one of stan-ironman’s tumblr posts.
> 
> I hope you enjoy this and if you’d like me to write more or want to tell me what you thought of this little thing, then please like and comment, it makes me extremely happy to hear from you.

Tony had once again stumbled out of his workshop, bleary-eyed and without any idea of what time it currently was. He’d no doubt been on one of his many science-benders as he liked to call them in his more articulate moments and probably hadn’t slept or eaten in quite some time. 

 

It was just his luck that he almost bumped into Peter, who had been hanging from the ceiling trying to balance a glass of milk in his hands without spilling something. He was clearly trying to drink upside down and as far as Tony’s jumbled mind could calculate, there was no chance at all that he’d actually succeed. 

 

Trying to escape the inevitable milk spill that was sure to come, he tipped Peter on the shoulder before even thinking about what to say to him. What came out was a group of words that could only make sense in Tony’s confusing state of mind.

 

“Milk.. has legs. Be careful or they’ll fall.”

 

Peter, entirely confused but intrigued by this sentence, started paying more attention to Tony than the glass full of milk, which then, naturally spilled all over the kitchen floor.  

A small cleaning robot scurried along and wiped the floor, let out a short beep and disappeared again.

Peter was still looking at Tony, who, after having fulfilled his duty of warning his protégée about the milk legs, nodded satisfied and turned around, walking off in search of a bed. Or something. The floor would do too.

 

Peter was slightly confused, but mostly amused. If it hadn’t been for the way in which Tony had said it, he might have been more concerned about his general state of mind. But as he’d presented his thoughts as if they were actual facts and even showed a little self-satisfied nod at the end, he just found the entire thing very funny.

 

And as the generation-z child he was, of course he tweeted about it. Only, he didn’t include the context into it, because why would he? It was clearly funnier like this. And that was how it started.

 

Spider-boi @realspiderman 

Tony Stark just came up to me and said “Milk… has legs. Be careful or they’ll fall.”

#preach #ancientwisdom

\- 1 min ago

 

Naturally, over the Internet a discussion began, trying to analyse the intent hidden behind the message, and people even developed conspiracy theories. hHashtags were shared like #bcarefulwmilk.

#Milklegs trended for a week. 

Spider-Man was asked for updates constantly over twitter and snapchat, people were actively boycotting milk, afraid to spill it incase it resulted in legs forming. Of course those were the minority, but in a world where alien gods and magic existed, you could never be quite sure you’re milk really was just that, apparently. 

 

Peter found the whole thing hilarious.

 

Especially when Tony was asked about the Milk Legs incident by an interviewer and had absolutely no idea what was going on. That had been amazing.

 

The next time Tony walked out of his lab in a daze, he had been on his way to the kitchen when he saw Rhodey, who seemed to be quietly reading in the common room. 

His feet moved on their own toward him and he plopped down next to Rhodey on the couch without as much as a single word. 

To Rhodeys raised eyebrow at that he replied, “Your eyes should be… eating.” And promptly fell asleep.

 

Rhodey shook his head and looked at his genius affectionately. He patted Tony’s unruly curls for a moment and then returned to his book, content to have Tony sleeping next to him.

 

Unbeknownst to him, Peter Parker had  been right outside the common room door on his way to the kitchen to make himself a sandwich, as he overheard Tony’s sleepy murmuring. 

His superheating could be a real pain in the ass sometimes, but sometimes? Well it definitely had its perks.

 

Spider-boi @realspiderman 

Just overheard Tony Stark  @youknowwhoiam saying that Col. Rhodes aka. @WarMachine ’s eyes should be eating. How’s your day been?

#ancientwisdom2 #today’sgospel #myeyesarehungry

\- 1 min ago

 

This time there weren’t even as many conspiracy theories as there were just people hailing Tony Stark as the new wisdom dispenser, even though no one really understood what was meant by his words. They thought they did, and tried to find meaning in the phrases, but really, there was no meaning to the things Tony’s sleep deprived mind concocted. They were just pure, stupid ramblings. 

 

Peter was still extremely amused by the whole thing.

 

Things came to a head when Tony, extremely exhausted after trying to improve his repulsor firing speed for what must have been at least ten hours, came upstairs only to see Harley and Peter standing next to each other, holding their phones up and smiling innocently at him. 

 

He blinked, once, twice, and rubbed his eyes. “The bed is what you make of it.” He said, and promptly walked past the two teenagers filming him towards the sofa to sit down. They stopped filming right before Tony, already fast asleep, slowly slid off the couch and onto the soft, fluffy carpet and started snoring softly. 

 

Spider-boi @realspiderman 

[video] 

Tony Stark  @youknowwhoiam dropping truths

#ancientwisdom3 #trulyagenius

\- 2 min ago

 

This one didn’t as much incite a discussion rather than just causing people to comment either how tired or adorable Tony looked, which was just as good of a payoff for Peter and Harley, if they were honest. After all their Mentor deserved more appreciation than anyone else for how much he worked and how hard. 

**Author's Note:**

> If you want to talk to me or even just scream about marvel with me I am always happy to do so, you can reach me on tumblr at [introvertedgirlsarentshy](https://introvertedgirlsarentshy.tumblr.com)
> 
> And please comment and or leave kudos, it really means a lot to me.


End file.
